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Mixed-income Development Sparks New Life in Allentown

All across America, aging public housing that warehoused tenants and deteriorated into public eyesores is giving way to a new type of community: mixed-income developments that help create stable neighborhoods and pathways for individual success.

Overlook Park, a 322-unit for-rent and for-purchase development springing to life on the site of the former Hanover Acres and Riverview Terrace public housing developments in Allentown, is one of the latest examples of this progressive approach.

Already, nearly 100 families are living at Overlook Park, and the waiting list to take up residence has grown.

Carmen Kuilan, one of the first residents to move in, is pleased with what she sees. “I love it. Everything I love. Thank you very much,” Kuilan told assembled project partners at a recent ceremony marking the opening of two of four phases of the development. Kuilan, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her elderly mother, got to rub shoulders with Congressman Charlie Dent (PA-15), Mayor Ed Pawlowski and business leaders at the event. Displaced residents of the old, barracks-like public housing project have first preference on new units, but must still meet income eligibility guidelines. The entire neighborhood, consisting of 269 rental and 53 homeownership units, is expected to be completed in 2009.

Overlook Park is being brought to life through a strong strategic partnership involving the Allentown Housing Authority, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, FHLBank Pittsburgh and FHLBank member Keystone Nazareth Bank, which helped the Authority apply for, and then delivered a $300,000 Affordable Housing Program grant. The developer, Pennrose Properties, is also working on a similar redevelopment in Easton, PA.

“Overlook Park’s mix of public housing, affordable and market-rate homeownership is creating a truly mixed-income neighborhood that helps residents experience safety and community stability while creating wealth through home equity,” Mayor Pawlowski said. “It will help put more families on the road to self-sufficiency.”